“I know Rupert Murdoch; he’s not a racist, by any stretch of the imagination. He’s expressing his opinion. I think it’s much to do about nothing,” Carson said.

“I believe what [Murdoch] was making reference to was the fact that there was a man who is a black president, that the black community was very excited about, who came in and whose policies have not elevated the black community,” Carson continued in a CNN interview.

But, when Wolf Blitzer asked Carson if he thought Obama was a “real black president,” Carson shot back, “I wouldn’t even get into such a conversation.”

“Well, he’ s the president and he’s black,” Blitzer noted accurately.

“We’re dealing with semantics,”Carson responded, adding, “I’m the last person who wants to play around with semantics and political correctness.”

Carson insisted Murdoch only apologized “because a lot of people took it the wrong way,” adding, “I think there are so many more important issues to deal with,” by way of signaling he was done with the subject.

But Blitzer noted Obama has confronted a “whole history of these kinds of accusations,” and asked Carson if he believes Obama was born on the United States. “I do believe that,” Carson said. Asked if he believed Obama is Christian, however, Carson responded, “He says he is.”

When pressed, Carson added, “I have to take him at his word” and would not budge off that.